A heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) system includes a duct assembly for transferring conditioned air to various locations. For example, an HVAC of a vehicle includes a duct assembly for transferring conditioned air into various locations of the vehicle cabin. The duct assembly may include ducts that extend from the engine compartment into the interior of the vehicle through an instrument panel, floor, etc., of the vehicle and/or may include ducts that extend from a rear auxiliary HVAC module. Stationary ducts, e.g., headliner ducts, may also extend through a headliner of the vehicle to deliver conditioned air to vents in the headliner. Connecting ducts may connect ducts in lower areas of the vehicles, e.g., the instrument panel, rear auxiliary HVAC module, etc., to the ducts in the headliner to transfer the conditioned air to the ducts in the headliner. The connecting ducts may be, for example, pillar ducts, i.e., ducts within the pillars of the vehicle such as the A-pillar, B-pillar, C-pillar, and D-pillar
The pillar ducts are assembled at a later stage in the assembly process after the interior components that house ducts in the lower areas have been installed into the vehicle, and after the headliner has been installed into the vehicle. Since the interior components and the headliner are already installed in the vehicle, these interior components and headliner create packaging constraints that limit the direction in which the pillar ducts may be moved within the vehicle during the assembly process.
Specifically, the packaging constraints may prevent the pillar ducts from being connected to the headliner in a direct vertical direction or from a direct side-loading direction. As a result, the pillar ducts may be required to be moved in various directions during assembly. This increases the complexity of the assembly process by requiring fine manipulation of components to make the connection and raises the likelihood of damaging the headliner duct and/or the pillar duct. In addition, foam may be used to seal around the pillar duct and movement of the pillar duct in various directions during assembly may inadvertently damage the foam by wrinkling or tearing the foam, or displacing adhesive that holds the foam in place.
Accordingly, there remains an opportunity to design a connecting duct that is easily assembled without damaging the stationary duct or the connecting duct while providing flexibility needed to make the duct connection in a manner not requiring fine manipulations of parts to fit together.